[LU] Yeovil

Sat Apr 26 18:49:35 BST 2008

Brought to you after a long journey, a lot of beer, a sizeable hangover, some good banter, more sausages consumed than is strictly necessary, "janners" and a long soak in a hot bath.

I'm going to start with disclaimer, because I can't really remember much of the game courtesy of the police bringing the game forward to the Friday night hence we hit Yeovil, well East Coker, by about 2.30 and started on the beer. The less wise among our group decided on when in Rome approach to drinking and pretty soon moved onto the cider...oh dear.

Anyway the ground is a chuffing long way out of Yeovil town. Its a cab/bus ride. Getting a cab in the town was a laugh - one cabbie pulled up outside the Mermaid Hotel, where there was 10 or 15 Leeds waiting, and said have you booked a cab? We said, yes. So he drove off. Eventually we got a cab and got to the ground to find that all the good natured banter and drinking in town had spilled up to the ground where there were huge numbers of Leeds wandering around, beaming, pissed as farts. In fact I'd go so far as to say that as far as I could see everyone in the Leeds end over the age of 12, was pissed...it was a huge swaying, good natured, happy mass. 

They have a funny set up for the away end. They've got a fenced off pen that encloses a large area of tarmac and grass behind the turnstiles. There were several burger/hot dog stands there that were doing a roaring trade, but despite the signs advertising chips they didn't have any. Then you get in the turnstiles where there was not much in the way of security or ticket checking and then out of a tunnel that puts you at pitch level right behind the goal, so you turn back on yourself and climb the terracing. Bloody loved the terracing, it was great just to be part of the moving swaying singing again...so many memories. There were a couple of times when the folk on the terracing to our right all came spilling down and looked like they were going to end up on the pitch. They didn't. Its a tidy little ground and a decent looking pitch. The terracing is open so a night like last night was alright, if a bit cold, but it would be a grim place on wet day.

So onto the game. Elding still in for Beckford (saving him for the play-offs?). Douglas back after suspension for Prutton (?). The first 25 minutes nearly all happened at the Yeovil end which was a long way away. We seemed to be really piling forward, keen to get stuck in. Moving the ball around, quickly and accurately. Yeovil were on the back foot from the off. After 4 minutes another cross came in there was a first effort (Johnson, I think) which was saved but the save was knocked home by Freedman. Cue insane bouncing around in the away end and, not surprisingly, lots of pockets of Leeds in all the other stands. Reading some Yeovil comments after the game it seems that in the stand opposite the away end, the Leeds fans and the locals got involved in a bit of "exchanging views on the game through the medium of their fists" but others say it something and nothing. From then on we had a few more half chances. Johnson and Freedman particularly stand out through the fog. Howson was getting through a lot of work. Johnson fizzed a free kick over the bar. Really didn't see much offered by Elding. There was an odd flurry from Yeovil but nothing that the back four didn't deal with comfortably. Yeovil did crank up the effort coming towards half time, pressing more towards our box but still never really breaking through into goalscoring positions. 

Half time - back to the burger vans for another hot dog. Loads of very pissed people wandering aimlessly.

Yeovil looked more like they meant business in the second. There was more steel in the challenges and they generally upped the pace of their game. There were longer spells of pressure on the Leeds' goal. Our attacks became more reliant on the long ball. Johnson and Elding had half decent efforts, although Elding's proved to be offside. Freedman was trying to run off the shoulder of the last man onto the long balls but they never quite fell for him. Then as the game was entering the last quarter, Sheehan - who had been tidy up to that point - miscontrolled a ball and in trying to get back to it lunged two-footed into the ankles of their bloke. Straight red; no argument here. However, on the pitch quite a lot of them had something to say. Loads of pushing and finger wagging. No more cards, though. Thought their guy might have got something for his retaliation. Macca immediately took the ineffective Elding off and put Hughes on a left back. Five minutes later, Lubo carried the ball forward across halfway and got crunched in a pretty fierce tackle that earned their player a booking. Lubo took the kick himself and from fully 35 yards leathered the bloody thing inches over the bar. That ball was travelling.

Fairly predictably Yeovil had the lion's share of the possession from here on in, without doing too much with it. The closest they came was right at the death when a low shot from the edge of the box was saved well by Caspar; he pushed it round the post. In the last 10 minutes Prutton and Marques were brought on for Johnson and Kilkenny to sew the midfield up. This they managed pretty well. With the final whistle came the relief of realisation that the place in the play-offs was now secure. Huge noise from the Leeds' end. The players seemed to be really appreciative, staying on the pitch for quite a while waving and clapping. 

ANGKERGREN - dealt effectively with all that came his way - including some good catches from crosses etc - v good save at the end

RICHARDSON - steady at the back, gave decent support going forward

SHEEHAN - had played well if unspectacularly, up to the sending off - but that was reckless - could have mattered a lot more - I've heard suggestions that he had a bad record at Leicester, needs to get that sorted

MICHALIK and HUNTINGTON - very good, capable, steady game - little got by them

KILKENNY - more of what you expect from him - a decent enough game in patches but invisible at other times

HOWSON - hard working, nose to the grindstone sort of performance

DOUGLAS - lots of breaking up Yeovil stuff

JOHNSON - possibly his best and most consistent game for us

ELDING - not sure he has what we need - no real substitute for Beckford and in my opinion does not do as much for the team as Kandol

FREEDMAN - out on his own quite a lot - poacher's goal - has really given the side that little boost, that bit of class 

SUBS

Hughes - fitted more or less seemlessly into Sheehan's place

Prutton - brought a fresh pair of legs to the midfield and added some competitiveness when we really needed it.

Marques - not sure he touched the ball

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Ref - seemed to get most stuff right

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Crowd - boisterous and drunk and delirious

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So Yeovil ? Weird little place - nice friendly people - the football fans I spoke to there seemed quite bemused and amused that they were hosting Leeds - not many gave them a prayer before the match.

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And so back to the little chocolate box village of East Coker - thatched cottages all around - and the pub where the lovely bar staff kept serving til well gone 1am. And well done to Simon from York, who was also staying in the same place, who walked most of the 8 or so miles back from the game, having failed to catch a cab, pissed as a fart on all those winding country lanes. He rolled in about 12.30.

Loads of tractors.